Art: Simple Geometry

Ten of the world's top architects, including France's Le Corbusier and
Brazil's Oscar Niemeyer, had joined in deciding what the U.N.
headquarters, on Manhattan's East Side, should look like. When their
tentative plan was first announced (TIME, June 2, 1947), it raised a
storm of protest. Howled one architect: "It looks like a sandwich on
edge and a couple of freight cars."

Nonetheless, the plan for the most startling part of U.N.'s
headquarters, the Secretariat, was completed. It had been supervised by
Architect Wallace K. Harrison, who also helped design Rockefeller
Center. Described this week in detail in the June issue...